1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a recording and reproducing apparatus, and more particularly to a method of copying a storage device having a plurality of different kinds of storage media integrally provided therein.
2. Description of Related Art
Hitherto, there have been known digital VTRs (video tape recorders) which record and reproduce video and audio data in the form of digital data on and from magnetic tapes. Some of such digital VTRs have been developed to record and reproduce, together with the video and audio data, auxiliary data related to the video and audio data (the auxiliary data being hereinafter referred to as system data). It has been proposed that the contents of such system data include information about the content of recorded data, such as identification information of a record, a date of recording, a condition of recording and a mark indicative of the start/end of recording, associated with the recent various kinds of multimedia, and also information provided for comfortable operability, such as numbers assigned to recording tracks and marks arranged to facilitate a search for leader parts of records.
The system data mentioned above is generally recorded, along with the recording data, in tracks formed on a magnetic tape. Recently, it has been proposed that a tape cassette containing the magnetic tape therein is equipped with an auxiliary memory such as a semiconductor memory, which is of a high accessibility, and a part of the system data is recorded in the auxiliary memory so as to be read out for use as necessary.
Meanwhile, in the field of analog VTRs of the kind using VHS or 8 mm tapes, it is practiced to carry out so-called dubbing whereby data recorded in one cassette is copied and recorded in another cassette.
A dubbing function similar to the dubbing of the analog VTRs is deemed to be necessary also for a digital VTR of the kind described above. When video data or audio data recorded in one cassette is to be dubbed in another cassette, it is only required that data reproduced from a magnetic tape contained in one cassette is recorded on a magnetic tape contained in another cassette.
However, in a case where the above-mentioned system data has been recorded in the auxiliary memory as well as on the magnetic tape, so far as video data or audio data recorded in the magnetic tape is merely dubbed, the system data intentionally recorded also in the auxiliary memory is not reflected in an auxiliary memory provided in a cassette in which the video data or audio has been dubbed. In short, in that instance, as for the system data, only a part of the system data as recorded on the magnetic tape would be dubbed, so that the auxiliary memory cannot be utilized at all.
Therefore, when the operator of the VTR wishes to quickly make reference to the system data, it would be impossible to meet the wish of the operator.